Chinese Barbecue Pork (Char Siu Pork)

23 March 2017

A delicious and simple recipe for a Chinese-restaurant classic which you can make at home.

One thing I miss about living in Australia is being able to visit the local Chinatown, whether it be for a traditional Dim Sum breakfast, a browse through the colourful aisles of the Vietnamese grocer, or a visit to the Chinese bakery for their light and fluffy cakes. Something I deeply miss are the restaurants where you can buy one of the Chinese roast ducks on display, as well as their crispy pork belly, or the ever popular Chinese barbecue pork (also known as char siu pork).

There is no Chinatown in Zurich. In fact, the Asian population here is very scant, but we are lucky to have a few amazing Chinese and Vietnamese grocers, as well as a growing number of south-east Asian restaurants.

That said, I still miss being able to pop into Chinatown to pick up something for a quick dinner. I miss being able to rely on good Chinese takeaway food, and I miss, quite simply, good Chinese takeaway food.

I have always felt that moving to Switzerland made me a better cook. In the absence of being able to buy many food items which I used to enjoy back in Australia, I have had to slowly learn how to recreate most of those dishes at home. Chinese barbecue pork, or char siu pork, is one of those dishes.

And like so many other things which I have re-created at home, making your own Chinese barbecue pork is incredibly easy, and the results are so delicious that this will become a regular dish in your home!

The Chinese barbecue pork that you find in most Chinese restaurants often has a tinge of red in the meat, either from using red fermented tofu in the marinade, or from red food colouring.

Red fermented tofu can be tricky to find, depending on where you live, so my recipe below uses ingredients which are more readily available in most mainstream supermarkets, thus saving you a trip to a specialist Asian grocery store. Although, if you have easy access to the latter, I highly recommend buying your Asian pantry ingredients there as the brands which they stock are more authentic in taste.

I find it easiest to prepare this dish the night before serving, or to make it first thing in the morning, so that the meat has had some time to marinate before roasting. My family love this Chinese barbecue pork served simply with steamed Jasmine rice and some steamed Chinese greens on the side (pak choi or Chinese broccoli work really well here). And I love to use tenderloin in this recipe, simply because it is easy for the children to eat, and also because we love the succulence and tenderness of the cut.

Instructions

Place all of the ingredients for the marinade into a bowl and whisk to combine.

Place the pork into a large ziplock freezer bag and pour the marinade inside. Make sure the pork is well-coated in the marinade. Place the bag into the fridge and leave it to marinate for 2-3 hours, or overnight.

When you are ready to roast the pork, take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature in the marinade (this will take about 30 minutes).

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

Place a roasting rack inside a large baking tray and fill the tray with boiling water. The rack needs to be high enough so that, when the meat is sitting on top of the rack, the meat should not touch the water. The water helps to create a steam in the oven to cook the pork and to keep it moist.

Place the pork on the roasting rack and roast for about 30 minutes, basting every 10 minutes or so (see next step).

Meanwhile, pour the reserved marinade into a small saucepan and add the extra 2 tablespoons of honey. Bring the sauce to a boil and simmer gently for a few minutes. Use this sauce to baste the pork .

After 30 minutes, turn the oven to grill (or broil) mode on high heat. If possible, place the tray as high as possible in the oven under the grill. Baste the pork generously every 3-5 minutes, making sure that it is browning nicely and doesn’t burn. Once the pork has caramelised nicely, remove the tray from the oven.

Let the pork rest for about 10 minutes before slicing.

Kitchen Notes

The size and thickness of pork tenderloin can vary greatly, so you may need to adjust your cooking times accordingly. The best way to check if the meat is perfectly cooked is to use a digital meat thermometer. Simply insert the needle into the thickest part of the meat, and the temperature should read between 145-160°F (60-70°C) for well-cooked pork.

Nutrition

Serving Size:4

Calories:337g (per serve)

Sugar:31.9g

Sodium:543.3mg

Fat:10.8g

Carbohydrates:36.2g

Fiber:0.6g

Protein:24.9g

Cholesterol:74.1mg

Share your photos!

If you have used this recipe, I would love to hear how it turned out! Please leave a comment below and share your photos on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter using #eatlittlebird

Thanks, Eloise!! I almost always use the oven in regular mode, i.e. as a conventional oven. I only recently learnt how to use the fan settings (i.e. convection oven) – something Mimi Thorisson showed me at her workshop 🙂 So for my recipes, you can assume that it is a regular oven with NO fan.

My first impression when I saw your photo is that your pork dish looks so much like Char Siu 叉燒. And it actually is lol. Char Siu is popular in Cantonese restaurants, but for home cooking, we only make it once or twice a year.

My mother is part-Chinese and she made this quite often when I was growing up. Well, more than once or twice a year 😉 But I agree that it is a special dish, but as it is relatively easy to make, I like to make it when we have guests.

Thanks, Helen! I’m so happy to hear that your family enjoyed this dish 🙂 And how wonderful that you made it for Easter Sunday. I love that the recipe works for both special occasions and everyday cooking. Thanks for leaving your feedback 🙂